THEATER; The Musical (and the Clothes) That Refused to Die

LET us now honor New York's multicultural roots, kosher-style. The immigrants from Russia, Poland, Latvia, who got off the boats on Ellis Island in 1910 expected to find streets paved with gold, it has been said. What is not said, but presumably understood, is that there was no gold. Sometimes there were not even streets, and the immigrants were expected to pave them. And they were always expected to do it right.

The creators of ''Rags,'' the musical that celebrates the hope for a ''Brand New World'' (one of its song titles) by ''Greenhorns'' (another song), have been struggling to get it right for 14 years. And that's if you don't count all the years of suffering it took to get it wrong in the first place.

In 1986, ''Rags'' opened on Broadway and closed after four performances (and 18 previews) at the grand Mark Hellinger Theater, once the home of ''My Fair Lady,'' and now the site of the Times Square Church. The music by Charles Strouse and the star presence and vocal splendor of Teresa Stratas were praised; all the rest, in theater parlance, needed work.

And that work, by the librettist, Joseph Stein, who originally conceived ''Rags'' as a screenplay, and the lyricist, Stephen Schwartz, has proceeded bit by bit, through various productions of the floundering musical, including one in Chicago, one in San Jose, Calif., and a streamlined one Off Broadway at the American Jewish Theater in 1991, with a cast of nine instead of the original 30.

But it was not until Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida produced the show in February that another revised ''Rags'' took shape, more seriously and more swiftly. When Angelo Del Rossi, the executive producer of Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, saw that production, he felt the show's time had come, this time for real.

With 6 of the 11 Coconut Grove cast members in an expanded ensemble of 15, or half the size of the original Broadway cast, the Paper Mill production opened on Friday. ''We've still got growing pains after all these years'' Mr. Strouse said after a preview, ''but I think we've made the bad spots good and the good spots better.''

What were the bad spots? Size, for one. ''We tried to do too much,'' Mr. Strouse said. ''And now it's tightened, more focused. People got lost in it,'' he recalled, referring to both cast and audience. The diffuse, scattered story now centers on Rebecca Hershkowitz, a young immigrant mother who escapes to the Lower East Side after a pogrom, and her love affair with Saul, an American labor organizer trying to unionize the sweatshop where she works.

Mr. Strouse's score for what Mr. Stein has called ''the show that refuses to die'' was influenced by Middle Eastern, Irish, Scottish, English folk, ''American honky-tonk, obviously jazz and ragtime and klezmer -- even Greek music of that day,'' and Broadway, too, the composer said. It is now ''more impressionistic.''

''It doesn't explain itself,'' he said. Songs have not been removed or added, only reshaped. He did write a new one, then discarded it. ''It was nice, but wrong,'' he added. ''I felt I could improve the show, and I have. But I've always loved it.''

RAGS'' is not expected to be one of Paper Mill's flashy, glitzy productions, but a conversation with the costume designer, Carrie Robbins, makes it clear that if anyone wants to attend an authentic period fashion show the Paper Mill may be just the place for the next six weeks.

Ms. Robbins, who designed the original productions of ''Yentl'' and, just for the sake of contrast, ''Agnes of God,'' has been obsessing over 1910, haunting stores specializing in the accouterments of Orthodox Judaism, as well as thrift shops and antique stores.

''It sounds like I'm Yentling it again,'' she said the other morning. ''I know where to buy schtroimels,'' or hats ''with or without fur, and a kaputa,'' a man's coat, buttoned from right (which stands for good) over the left (for evil), and tsitsis, a poncho with tassels, worn as an undergarment.

Ms. Robbins went to Ellis Island, to the Ellis Island Foundation in midtown Manhattan and to the Internet, poring over photos of immigrants huddled in boat-issue blankets. She then bought old blankets from army-navy stores, imprinting the names of ships upon them.

To a perfectionist of her rank, all costumes relate to the text, and bear their own subtext. ''The images I saw were so compelling I couldn't get them out of my mind,'' she said. Her designs represent 1900's precision filtered through 1990's high tech. ''The sketches collaged on my computer instead of the drawing board,'' she said.

Gathering, reconstructing and restoring vintage 90-year-old clothing -- ''an irreplaceable black lace dress for Rebecca'' and a pure, elegant white dress for a new character, the Lady in White, representing the image the immigrants covet -- Ms. Robbins would ''take an old schmata,'' or rag, look closely at it and ''see the whole history of workmanship and stitching from generation to generation.''

''The people in the costume shop think I'm nuts,'' she said, ''but even if the audience doesn't see all the details, if it smells right to me and it's right for the actors, you have to take the time to get it right. When someone told me 'Fiddler on the Roof' costumes are in storage, I said: 'What would that have to do with anything? These are not the same Fiddler people.'

''I wanted to bring those wonderful old pictures and images back to life, as real as I could possibly make it,'' Ms. Robbins said. She talked of crocheted pieces, handmade lace, old brocades, jackets and vests. ''No one does this kind of work anymore,'' she said. ''They knew how to sew and make old drapes look good. Quality lasts. Some actors said: 'It looks so fancy. The name of the show is ''Rags.'' ' But people knew how to sew, mend, darn and stitch. And if they were poor, they didn't have to run around with things that were all torn.''

RAGS

Paper Mill Playhouse

Brookside Drive, Millburn

Through Dec. 12. Performances: Wednesday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Thursday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.; next Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.